Working maple

[Bob Johnson2]

I've got a couple questions for anyone with experience working with maple, my wife has changed to maple from oak for some cabinets. Oaks I've used where as maple I haven't.
First off, I can get either soft, red (red may be the soft as they are not both listed at the same mills), or hard maple locally. Is one preferred over the other for cabinet doors? It'll have to match pretty well what hard maple plywood looks like finished.
How is maple to work with, is it something a cabinet rookie should try or should I talk her back into oak?
I've got a couple vanities to do then a kitchen so I'll get a bit of practice before the bigger project.
Thanks

[Jim Dunn]

Bob,
The little bit of wood working I have done has been almost exclusively with hard maple. I for one like it for its color. I tell my wife if she was as blonde as the wood I'd spend less time in the shop I have found that it does indeed cut different than say red oak. Had some red oak I sawed up for some runners for a down draft table I built. The red oak sawed like it was crumbley where as the maple cuts these long slivers even with a 24 tooth ripping saw. By the way I've finished all my maple with tung oil only. Good luck.
Jim

[Alan Turner]

Bob,
You will not have porblems with the maple, and for your use, to match ply, go with the hard maple. Red mpale is one of the several soft maples, with a bit of a reddish cast. It is a nice wood in and of itself, but the match will not be there as the ply is most liekly hard maple.

Alan

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I never use hard Maple unless I am making a cutting board....I use soft Maple and it matches the ply we get perfectly.

[Mark Singer]

I almost always use hard maple.....It works well and takes a finish well.

[Lee Schierer]

Maple is less forgiving of dull blades and poor blade/fence alignment than oak. It is much easier to get burn marks. Make sure your blades are sharp, line up and the feed rate never stops. You'll get less splintering with maple. I like Deft clear wood finish on maple. It doesn't yellow with age nearly as much as polyurethane.

[Sam Blasco]

Hard maple is one of my very favorites to work with. Machines well, is fully of great figure surprises and is very durable. It likes poly-urethane glues better than yellows, though the last table I did I tried Titebond III. I missed the open time of the big Ape, but it worked out well. Staining can be problematic (blotchy), even with pre-treatments. Best to use dyes or tinted lacquers, rather than pigmented colorings. Personally, I like it au-natural.

[John Hulett]

Since we're analyzing the workability of Maple, how would you folks who have done it, compare Hard Maple with Birds Eye or Figured Maple? My guess would be that they are very similar, but I don't want to make assumptions. Any special considerations?

[Keith Christopher]

Since we're analyzing the workability of Maple, how would you folks who have done it, compare Hard Maple with Birds Eye or Figured Maple? My guess would be that they are very similar, but I don't want to make assumptions. Any special considerations?

John,

I have used Maple ALOT, it works well and (not to repeat earlier posts) burns a little easily. When using figured maple (I was inspired by Mark Singers beadboard) I built the DMarks round mirror from curly maple and walnut. The thing I learned (which has been stated NUMEROUS times everywhere) it planes like crap. LOL. grain changes make it very hard to avoid. I also noticed that the more figure the more likely you are to have the little small corners of the wood just fall off because it's now "loose" grain because the majority of the supporting grain was routed away. Call it chipout if you like but after routing some pieces they were fine, I bumped the corner lightly and they just fell off. it was a learning experience but MAN does it look nice once it is finished !


Keith

[Bob Johnson2]

Maple is less forgiving of dull blades and poor blade/fence alignment than oak. It is much easier to get burn marks. Make sure your blades are sharp, line up and the feed rate never stops. You'll get less splintering with maple. I like Deft clear wood finish on maple. It doesn't yellow with age nearly as much as polyurethane.

I was thinking of maybe opening the far end of the fences a bit or going with a half fence. I'll have to hang onto these posts, lots of good tips, thanks all.

[Lee Schierer]

I was thinking of maybe opening the far end of the fences a bit or going with a half fence. I'll have to hang onto these posts, lots of good tips, thanks all.

I wouldn't recommend having the fence tail away, although that is better than pinching. You'll get better cuts with a fence that is parallel with the blade and a blade that is parallel to the miter slots. You can pick up a dial indicator at harbor freight for under $20 and attach it with a wodd screw to the board on the face of your miter gage to do the set up. I recommend taking the time to align your saw to as near perfect as you can get it. It will save you time and frustration in the long run.

[JayStPeter]

I personally find Maple easier to work than Oak. It does have a tendency to burn, but I mostly use Cherry so I'm used to that. I really don't enjoy working with Oak much. Figured Maple is a whole different ballgame (but worth the extra effort).

Jay

[Lars Thomas]

If you plan to stain (pigment-Minwax is one type) the maple, don't go much past 180 grit sand paper. Else you will 'seal' the grain and the pigment stain will not penatrate. The alternative is to sand to your hearts content and use dye-type stain (Homestead)

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I personally have found maple a pleasure, in my limited experience. I have worked with red maple in a couple of different projects. It takes stain VERY well and machines wonderfully.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Bob,

I like 'em both. I've used a lot more oak (white) than hard maple, but I think maple is a lot easier to work. The oak splinters and tears out at the drop of a hat and my WWII burns it if I even hesitate when feeding it through the table saw. I haven't had those problems with maple. Both are beautiful with some type of clear finish (your choice).